Is It more Pink or a shot of Blue for us???

Today, we went to my doctor to have an ultrasound (16 1/2 weeks) to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. I have had feelings, due mostly to circumstantial evidence, that we would be having another girl. People say to us all the time "You are hoping for a boy, right?" Well, we have a house full of girl stuff so I figure we should just roll with it. Lindsay wanted a baby brother. Caroline wanted a baby sister. Daddy I think is indifferent...."either would be fine" he says.

So, here it is... The top shot is a profile of the head, (bottom right of image) the spine and abdomen, and little legs. The baby is about 6" long at this point. Everything looked great - the heart has 4 chambers and was fluttering away, all parts of the brain and spine are intact...
And the bottom picture is literally the "bottom" of our

LITTLE GIRL!!!!!!!

(Or the profile of a Tyrannosaurus Rex). It is an undershot of the bottom and teeny tiny little thighs.

I said "I knew it!" Lindsay said "oohhhhh!" like she was disappointed it wasn't a boy. Caroline didn't say much - I am sure she was just confused - she heard a baby crying in another exam room and asked if that was our baby crying in the computer.

Anyway, Steve said to the girls as we were walking out "So am I gonna be the only boy around here forever?" Really, these girls couldn't ask for a better Daddy for a bunch of girls. No disrespect intended, Steve! He is so good with them - in fact, one of their favorite activities is to have him sit or lay in the family room while they spray his hair, put make-up on him, you know, give him the royal treatment! (Seems to happen a lot during UNC games on TV...I wonder if this is a coincidence?)

We had fun together. The girls are at such a fun age for this sort of thing. They still find it to be a mystery that they have not really asked too many questions that are hard to answer, mostly things like "Is the baby sleeping?" "Does the baby give you a tummy ache?" And they give my little tummy kisses.

We are excited - now the waiting begins.... Baby Girl Simpson is due May 13th and we will schedule a c-section for a week or so earlier!!!

In honor of my Mom, Sue

Today, my mom would have been 52 years old. It has been 2 1/2 years since we lost her and we miss her terribly. I miss having my mom to call 12 times a day to ask her a quick question. I miss not having her consult on decisions, like the color of our new van. I even miss her being worried about us all the time, always calling to make sure we got home OK from a trip or something like that. My girls are missing out on the best Grandma in the world, a Grandma who would show up unannounced and take them for a lunch date to MickyDonald's - as she and Lindsay called it. Who never tired of having the grand children around here house, including sleepovers. I do my best to keep her memory alive for my girls, we talk about Nama Sue all the time, things she liked to eat, her favorite colors, her favorite kinds of music. Lindsay asks a lot of specific questions, like "I know Nama's favorite color was purple. But what kind of purple? Dark purple? Lavender, what?" The other night we were driving home late at night from somewhere and Caroline was a little cranky about something. I thought she was just tired. She said, "You don't even know what I am sad about." Oh, what, we asked? "I am sad about Nama Sue." Caroline was 18 months old when she died and I doubt truly remembers her but I know that in keeping her memory alive, she knows what is missing from our lives.

Thanksgiving weekend has always marked the beginning of the Holiday season for most people. For our family, it is a big deal as well. My mom's birthday is right around Thanksgiving and our tradition is to celebrate her birthday the Sunday after Thanksgiving with family, eat all the leftovers (we usually need to make more mashed potatoes!) and we always have Lemon Meringue pie - her favorite. I think I need to make a lemon meringue pie - I didn't make one this year for Thanksgiving - I was "pied out!" Plus Molly and I were working all Friday and Saturday (We had a booth in a Holiday boutique in Scottsdale) so energy wise, I was tapped.

My mom was was the most kind, loving, generous and selfless person I have ever known. Sure, I can think back and find flaws. We all have them. She was not perfect. But, when it came to her family, friends, her church - she was always giving and always put others first. I wish she would have or could have taken more time for herself or splurged for herself more often. But, in reality, she was probably most happy when giving. Also, I know she could not afford to splurge on purchases for herself. Extra money (or money they didn't even have) always went to us girls. I think as an adult I have been able to reflect and realize how much my mom truly sacrificed to keep us girls happy and active and involved in activities.

I love my mom and miss her terribly. But I know I am lucky enough to have had about 30 years with her. It is my children who will miss out the most. Molly, Meghan, and I do all we can to keep her memory alive. And that doesn't mean a once or twice a year trip to a cemetery. It means cooking her recipes, looking at her pictures, listening to her favorite Christmas music, that sort of thing. We talk about her in daily conversation. I want my children to know of the standard she set and the legacy left by her.

I have been looking at and reading a scrapbook of sorts that Molly compiled for us for Christmas 2005, after mom had died. It is filled with, of course, the funeral program and obituary, but most importantly, it is filled with letters of remembrance from friends and family. It reminds me of things and events that I don't think about very often or quite possibly might have forgotten, like the way she liked her orange juice with breakfast (more crushed ice than juice.) I know my mom's memory will live on as we read and re-read these letters and notes. My mom had no acquaintances, everyone was her dear friend. And I think every single one of them is represented in the letters in this book. Thank you Molly for compiling it. I don't think I have ever thanked you enough. It is a valuable treasure.

Weigh in: Am I officially the meanest mom in the world or did I just finally grow a back bone?

Warning - this is long and I am sorry but a Mom's gotta vent!!!

My kids have spent all week trying to clean their room. I am firmly of the opinion that a 6 year old and (in 3 weeks) a 4 year old can clean their shared room by themselves when they have easy access bins for toys, bookshelves, a laundry hamper, a trash can, etc. Seriously, how hard is it? Monday night they found out they would not have any TV or friends over after school while they cleaned their room. They worked for hours and got no where. We talked at dinner about an incentive program: a Christmas tree chart: have 8 days of sticker ornaments for the chart - a clean room before bed every night - they would get a new Christmas tree for their room that they can decorate themselves. They have a tiny one and wanted a 4 ft one - I said they needed to earn it. Wednesday, I was working to set up for the Holiday boutique this weekend and their step-grandmother was watching the girls and didn't get anything done then. Thursday, for Thanksgiving morning, I let them play until noon (it is a holiday, I was sick, Steve was sick, and I needed to get stuff done (pies) and couldn't fight with them about the room so they got some free time. At noon, I said that I would be leaving at 3:45 for Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving dinner with or without them because their room had to be done. They had plenty of time. At 3:45 when I left without them, it was ugly. But it kicked them into gear. Sort of. After realizing that I had left a crucial part of our holiday dinner (the Martinelli's) at home and Steve would need to bring it; they got to leave before they were finished. But, we made sure we went ahead and started without them so my kids would know we sort of left them in the dust. Now comes Friday. I was out doing crazy early day - after shopping and didn't get back until noon. Daddy didn't make them work. After some lunch, I made them get to work on their drudgery.

After 4 days of this, I just couldn't take it anymore. I went into their room at 5:30 with a trash bag. Now, what was left to do was mostly misc. crud like barbie shoes, trash, stray dirty laundry, etc. from the perimeters of the room - a lot of it though. They were not happy when I filled a kitchen trash bag.

And here's where I thought I got mean. Steve and I decided to get take-out for dinner. I had a craving for Pei Wei (if you don't know Pei Wei, it is the smaller, more casual little brother of PF Changs - many of the same menu items....YUM!) and I called in an order. I told my girls that WE were getting Pei Wei, which they really like, but THEY were getting peanut butter and water. No jam, no honey, just bread, peanut butter, and water to drink. They were devastated and told me in no uncertain terms they would not eat that unless I gave them honey or jam. Well, I didn't back down and ate the Pei Wei in front of them. I think I would have a hard time actually sending them to bed without dinner or something like that but I feel that this was a good punishment. It meant something to them.

Taking away friends didn't mean enough
Taking away TV didn't mean enough
Offering a new Christmas Tree didn't mean enough
Being brought late to Thanksgiving dinner didn't mean enough
But, being forced to eat Peanut Butter on wheat bread and water while we ate Pei Wei did.

Go figure. I can't believe we dealt with this for what seems like an entire week. Where did I go wrong? I was trying to hold my ground every day. I guess it was just the right leverage point. They don't really like peanut butter sandwiches and occasionally tolerate it with jam. I guess you just need to keep trying until you push the right buttons.

How was Thanksgiving? Dramatic, thank you.

Let's begin this with a picture of 5 lovely pies. Ahhhh........

Highlights (and lowlights) of our Thanksgiving (you be the judge):

1. Baking Rolls and Pies. I enjoy doing it, it is always my assignment. I made 5 pies: Pumpkin, Apple, 4 Berry, Chocolate, and Banana Cream. Anyone want leftovers?
2. Having my 2 kiddos help with the rolls and chocolate pie.
3. Dog sitting my neighbor's little rat-dog. (Don't get me wrong, it is cute, I just don't know what kind it is...pretty small and scraggly.) The girls are in 7th heaven. Me, not so much.
4. Me, well, I have had a pretty miserable cold and have been experimenting will all kinds of OTC meds to keep me running. Steve throwing up all night and spending Thanksgiving day in bed until it was time to go eat at my dad's, and well, bring the girls late when.....
5. The girls finally *almost* finished cleaning their room. They had been working on it for 3 days (the floor literally was not visible, I am not kidding) and I had bribed and taken away privileges to the max. Finally I said at noon they could not come to Thanksgiving Dinner (4pm) until it was done. As noted before, Daddy brought them late. Dinner had already started.
6. The food was great, Molly made her fantastic creamed corn, the turkey was great, (good job Dad) the kids hardly ate - they wanted to play with Dad's dogs. Steve hardly ate because he was still sick...we had a lot of food!

7,8,9,10 - We had some tough, emotional family issues to deal with. Enough said.

11. We ate pie. Like I said, I made 5. I have lots leftover. (Today I decided to be the coolest mom in the world and let the girls and the neighbor friend who is over have a Pie Buffet for lunch.)
12. Steve and I watched an episode of the 2nd season "24". Always a great way to end a night, Thanksgiving, or otherwise.

Wow - a school picture that doesn't stink!

I will be honest, I was not expecting much. Last year the Kindergarten picture was terrible. The lighting, the printing, and I hate to say it, her goofy expression! So, this year, she wanted the purple background "Mommy, some of my friends in the yearbook had the purple!" (extra $2) and I figured for two bucks, make the kid happy - get the purple! I mean, we had already picked out the outfit - had to be uniform red, white or blue (she chose red) and I was a little worried about the purple and red making too strong of a statement. Overall, I am happy with how the canned school picture went. A new and better vendor, thankfully. I am still more a fan of B/W art type photography (coming soon!) but this is cute. Her hair stayed curled, she looks like herself, and she was so proud to show it to me. I am jealous of her hair.

There's nothing like home-canned fruit!

10 Quarts of Applesauce, stove splatters and all. That's it. 10 lousy (OK, yummy) quarts. And only 5, I repeat, 5 of them are mine!!!

My sister Molly and I decided this week to keep up on our pioneering and homemaking skills...a couple of times a year we get adventurous and can fruit. I started a few years ago, Molly just joined me. I remember my mom doing it but then she would not want to eat the canned peaches or pears or grape juice or pickles or whatever because 1)they looked so pretty on the shelf and 2)she knew how dang long it took to get them there! We both belong to a Produce Co-op (www.bountifulbaskets.org) and besides their standard weekly produce baskets, we can occasionally buy bulk cases of fruit. This time we bought 1 case of Granny Smith apples to split. (Having never done them before, we didn't want to be overwhelmed with too much fruit.) We decided on apple sauce - both our families like it and we can always use it for the babies that come along! So luckily, I have an "All in One" apple peeler, corer, slicer which makes quick work of, well, peeling, coring and slicing! Then we had to cook them to soften, blend them to the desired texture, heat with a bit of sugar to boiling, ladle it into hot quart jars and process in a hot water bath or steam canner for 20 minutes. Applesauce does not boil like water, it explodes like the geysers at Yellowstone. FYI. So what do we get for 3 hours of work? 10 quarts of applesauce. We figure they cost us about $2 a quart for the jar and apples. What did it cost us in time? Well, luckily, we didn't have a lot else going on Saturday afternoon.

There are some things we have learned along the way with canning. This is not an exhaustive list as we only just dabble in it here and there.
1. It is a very important skill to have and maybe some day we will have gardens or yards or orchards that yield lots of fruits and vegetables and we can "put them up" ourselves!
2. There is nothing like home-canned peaches. Nothing, not even those expensive Del Monte brand ones in the refrigerated produce section at the grocery store come close. It is worth every moment blanching and peeling and slicing and processing and mopping up sticky floors.
3. Pears, well, commercially canned pears taste about the same as home canned ones. So, given that, and that they are harder to do than peaches, I will stick to buying them commercially unless I get them for free or next to nothing!
4. I will forever appreciate commercially prepared applesauce after seeing that one full case of apples only yields 10 quarts of applesauce.

I have been very homesick lately....

These past few weeks have really sent me into a "homesick mode." I miss Oregon. The Portland area to be specific. I miss the rain. I miss the clouds. I miss the gardens. I miss the bridges and the rivers. I miss the thriving yet small and intimate in scale downtown. I even miss the elephants at the zoo. I don't know what makes right now different from all other 7 years I have lived in Arizona, maybe it is the fact that my A/C kicked on today and it is November 18th. Maybe it was that my kids were hot on Halloween...and they were dressed as cheerleaders. Maybe it is finding a scorpion hiding under Lindsay's sneakers she kicked off in the family room. (Or the scorpion found in our shower or in our bed or under a pile of Polly Pockets as the girls were picking up their room...)

We are going to Portland for Christmas and will be spending a week there. It will be cold, it most certainly will be wet, and there is always a *chance* it might snow. My Grandma and Aunt have rented a beach house for 3 days right after Christmas - it will be stormy and cold - curl up by the fireplace, play games, watch the waves crash on the rocks. Wonderful. We cannot wait.
Downtown Portland, 5th Ave.
Japanese Gardens at Washington Park
Mt. Hood - view at dusk from Washington Park - the nation's largest Urban Park.
The Rose Gardens in Washington Park
The Steel and Freemont Bridges over the Willamette River
Packy (I think!) from the largest and most successful Asian elephant breeding program in the world at the Oregon Zoo.

Disneyland November 2007

Soccer Fall Season 2007

This was our first year playing soccer after a few dance filled years. The girls had such a great time and grew so much! We learned from Caroline that she loves soccer and does not like gymnastics or dance class. Consequently, we will be signing her up for the spring season of soccer. She is truly turning into our little Tom Boy!! And Lindsay, well, we really think she is a dancer and gymnast at heart - but we watched her grow so much through the season. One of the biggest strides she made was transitioning from skipping across the field to running! That was huge! At the end of the season she learned how better to place her body to actually kick a ball far and with more power - she was so proud of herself! She too wants to play spring season.

Halloween Festivities

Pumpkin Patch with the cousins - we had so much fun picking pumpkins, going on a hayride, and then, going out for ice cream with Aunt Molly, Uncle Andy, Hayden and Brynley. We also carved pumpkins for the first time too...the girls thought pumpkins were just for drawing faces or gluing crafty stuff to make designs! But really, I have to say this...the Halloween season is not supposed to be 85-90 degrees. That is wrong.

It's a "Go Heels" Trick or Treat!

Go Heels!!!! That's the University of North Carolina Tarheels to the rest of us. It is no small secret that Daddy is a huge Tarheel Fan (bye bye August to March as we get thru Football and Basketball season...). So, this year, the girls decided to be cheerleaders for Halloween and their daddy, well, was their biggest fan of course! The girls were so cute with their cheer uniforms, their pompoms, and spirit face paints!

So, we got a new van....

And we really love it. We really do! We were commenting that now we are nearly a complete family...Swingset -check. Bunk Bed... -check. Minivan... -check. Caroline commented that the only thing we are missing is a big upstairs house. I could not agree more. But another year, another big purchase. We broke it in quite well with a trip to Disneyland. (More on that later, I am sure...I have so much to blog about...) I had to put away all the cool I thought I had still left in me - we spent 4 months shopping for a car/van/truck/SUV/CUV that would work for us. Finally, we realized we needed the ultimate in convenience and comfort and there is none better than the Honda Odyssey for that. So we decided if we were getting the minivan, we would at least go all out - the color we both liked, leather, DVD, etc. We are happy. And thanks to Rush, our 13 year old neighbor across the street, we have even replaced the rear window!!!! (Something about throwing a tiny rock at a bird, it missed, bounced, and hit my rear window at just the right angle.) So we have had our first damage and I have been pulled over for the first time in it as well. (I didn't have my lights on - I had thrown out my back at soccer practice and could hardly drive, let alone remember to turn on lights! I could barely reach the glove box for the registration!) Oh, and an Orange Soda from McD's has spilled as well. (Steve, what were you thinking? The kids can get diet minute maid lemonade thru the drive thru on a trip - no sugar and no color to stain!!!) Thank goodness we got all weather floor mats. All this before we even have a license plate.